How to explain the numinous?

Today's title, question marked, therefore rhetorical, observing linguistic convention, commas carefully deployed grammatically ... whoops! those three dots, a habit in the blog, a radical device to disrupt and sow seeds of doubt about full stops ... which are unknown in our birthright, Nature, long abandoned in The Garden, a metaphor in biblical systems ... but the Word, of God or Prophets or any other word you like, is not the thing described. .. it's a trap! best stay silent, rather than babble in the Tower ... or play lightly with it, knowing that even Lao Tse, or Tzu, the Old Boy of Dao, or Tao, advised, or advises if The Power of Now is right, that The Dao which can be described is not the Immortal Dao! though 80 or so wise verses follow .... hmmm ...

Semantics, or General Semantics, worth a look ... Robert Anton Wilson explains it in an entertaining way, along with Zen and other sounds denoting nothingness or emptiness paradoxically full ... of energy, Infinite Potential ... where Bohm was pointing and the title of his recent film, though he himself, or rather his Bohm form, not the essence lingering in The Field ... passed on a while ago ...

Kurt Vonnegut, German sounding, but full citizen of BSA, a POW in Dresden when that city was flattened in one of the War Crimes of the century ... exceeded soon after by not one but two nuclear attacks to test the efficacy of the destructive power ... Japanese war crimes on the Burma Railway and other sites the justification ... the very bleak humour of the author emerged in his observation: it is important to exercise the vocal chords in case we have something important to say one day ...

Anyway, all this wordplay passes the time, though may not help describe some insights, the pathless path into the right brain, if that really is the location of Mind, Universal and or the individual and or the Superorganism proposed by Zen of Thich Nhat Hanh and Interbeing and others less well known ... Michael, for example, well enough known to Wear&Dao ... anyway that's numinosity and may only be pointed to at best ... sorry dear reader(s), you have to work it out yourselves. .. there's plenty of time, after all, if infinity's a thing ... or paradoxically no-time ... so, like the present! and prophets all around, major and minor to help you construct your unique Way ... hold it lightly, you'd be mad to take seriously, which, incidentally is good reason in DUK at least, along with COPD, to decline to suffocate yourself ...

Rain clearing to a mostly clear day in a quite wet August and time to walk ... and reflect on an amazing Reality opening up, beyond Fear, beyond Self, lived alongside other humans in parallel worlds where our consciousness evolves as creators, in partnership with the infinite potential in all, and simultaneously players, audience with the others ... phew, imagine that!

Latest possibilities include: small retreat extension starting to take form; winter trips to Sri Lanka and now Penang; or stay here for winter retreat, why not? it's where I live just Now!

Radha ...

Weird that one year on from the 50th Anniversary of Brockwood School, one of many set up in Krishnamurti's name, though the only one in Europe, and a month after camping three days there, tolerated by devotees on the edge of their half-baked quarantine, clearly fearful of .... what? perhaps the school itself, no longer much concerned, as far as parents and pupils are concerned, with K, the Messenger, or even necessarily the still powerful Message, that Truth is a Pathless Land, but attracting students, mostly fee-paying, yearning for the freedom offered, from examinations if they choose, certainly from bullying, since the pastoral care is second to none, and the beautiful surroundings, home-grown food, vegetarian diet, moderate fees, thanks to many volunteers and low paid teachers, who do hold the teachings dear ... oh dear! such a long sentence ... so many commas, and still no full stop!

That's Life ... and in the blog, if the odd full stop occurs, remember language itself is not the Truth, and the Truth itself has no full stop ... maybe ...

After reading lots from K, indeed inspired to go on Pilgrimage, radically, having cleared the decks of all the stuff that wouldn't fit in the rucksack ... and biographies, some say hagiographies, Radha's wonderful book, not only admits the Shadow side of K, including Fear, but clearly reveals that her Mother, Rosalind, and Radha herself, have much to teach the World. .. let her last paragraph speak for itself ... she still lives so there may be more, who knows?:

"To Krinsh I feel grateful for many things. From earliest childhood he taught me to be free from the desperate seeking and searching for respectability and security, for gurus and masters and ideologies. I learned from him that comparisons and labels lead to prejudice and unhappiness, that conformity leads to mediocre imitation, that there can be no freedom where there is guilt or fear. He let me be free from him and taught me not to be afraid to wander in a pathless land."

As you'll see dear reader(s), as a proper writer, she employs full stops ...

The library continues to grow here in Stanhope, now including this heresy to join the shelf of K and Bohm ... K devotees be warned ... you're welcome as you know, and if reading Radha sets you free from dependency, fine ... if it offends you, that's your problem!

A small extension to the cottage is planned, to cater for seekers seeking not just books and DVDs, of K, Bohm, Buddhism, Daoism, Science and Philosophy, in novel form ... but also fellowship in simple comfort, walks in Nature (not separate from us), plain and simple food, some gathered from the woods and hedgerows, no rules except Love one another (and some ways to ease the path, not to constrain!) ... no Teachers, except each other .. or solo, a special opportunity, in Silence, to find yourself and know it ...

If no-one comes? That's fine too ... a downstairs bathroom's always handy as decrepitude beckons remorselessly ... the body rots, consciousness continues on ...

Rosalind

After last year's observations on Radha Rajagopal Sloss' book, Lives in the Shadows with J. Krishnamurti, the book itself arrives, with the author Radha's mother, Rosalind, centre stage.
The story, heresy to many K fans, fills out some inconvenient details of a love triangle with Rosalind, her husband and Radha's father, plus the amorous though ostensibly celibate World Teacher, Krishnamurti ...

Beautifully written, it's far from a kiss and tell tale, and very fair to K, faithful to his core message, echoed by the Buddha and exploring the psychology of faithful followers, to this day in denial of the humanity of their Guru ... the Guru who consistently insisted he was not a Guru, whilst enjoying the life afforded by the wealthy aristocrats, from England, USA and other places where the Theosophists gathered, in search of salvation, fascinated by the esoteric and occult, missing Buddha's Middle Way, Lao Tse's Simplicity, Christ's Camels Eye of a Needle and other inconvenient Truths.

Students of Jung, meanwhile, will see the significance of Radha's title immediately as she lays bare the hypocrisy sensitively, whilst keeping her Mother, Rosalind, known variously by different players in her story as Rosie, Rozzie and Ros at the centre ... and it is her story,  notwithstanding the parts played by Raja, her often absent, geographically and psychologically, Father, loyal to K for years, unaware K was meeting Rosalind's physical and emotional needs and Radha's basic childhood need for a present Father ... secrecy deemed essential to maintain the loyalty of the many women in love with the the handsome young chaste Teacher ...

Theosophy continues to this day, including locally in Durham, though not resonating at Wear & Dao on the one research visit ... to be honest K's persona not appealing either, though the Power of his core message is ... his other, later, relationship ... with David Bohm, scientist and mystic, drawn to K by their mutual grasp of the Truth: The Observer is the Observed ... their dialogues examining The Limits of Thought, The Ending of Time and other topics forensically ... finds Bohm more appealing as a messenger, though not a Guru ... and perhaps the only interlocutor K treated as an equal. .. for quite a while at least.

All above my head in the detail of course, but instinct serves the pseudo-intellectual would-be polymath well enough thank you ... not self-satisfied, and ever seeking Truth, noting synchronicities, embracing magical thinking ... all held lightly ... to take one's self seriously a categorical error, of course!

Bohm meanwhile, who died unrecognised by fellow physicists, most following Nils Bohr's mainstream advice, frustrated by the philosophical implications of the Observer Effect and limited by their insistence on the old paradigm denying the role of insight, instinct, inner exploration, advised: Shut up and calculate! since probability produced significant results ... is star of a recent film, Infinite Potential, free to view online and highly recommended ...

Dull weather enlightened by both Bohm and Sloss ... K too, now rounded out as fully human ... plus new information on the current existential challenge, which dragged the blogger from excessive solitude, a beautiful state, though not the reason to be landed here on Earth in human form ... to be fully Human, whether playing Light or Dark, is to engage with other humans ... Left hemisphere upgrade download completed and pieces of this dark phase of the multi-dimensional drama fall into place, revealing information hiding in plain sight from the World Economic Forum, three copies on order due Wednesday ... let's see ...

And my own human frailty, in the game policed by us, through Fear, fed by flabby thinking, excess wealth, unhealthy thinking, eating, lack of exercise and Sun? A tendency to paranoia, maybe fed by caution in the overlong communist youth, trained to suspect state surveillance ... not without reason, since our mission was to overthrow State Power ... mostly eradicated on Pilgrimage, especially in the simple years, without house or car or reserves of cash ... not large by some reckoning, but more than enough ...

Time to post, dear reader(s) ... thanks for your attention ... more to come for sure, though the Ultimate well out of reach, and best left there, as advised by the Dao, or Tao, and Lao Tse ...

Damp and dreary interlude ...

Low pressure brings low mood, not unusual in British summertime ... the reason countless Brits head South to roast in high pressure for a week or two ... kindly permitted by the Junta, who take away the joy by insisting on some half-baked quarantine when returning, impossible to enforce, of course, but nosy neighbour peer pressure is doing that job anyway ... plus fear of fines, also unenforceable ... police are plenty busy with proper criminals, courts struggling to cope. ..

One of the many benefits of a Pennine home is the propensity for differential weather patterns ... prevailing Westerly winds pick up water from the Atlantic and dump most on the popular Lake District, leaving Stanhope rather drier ... when an Eastern flow, not beastly, but static, sits around for days on end, drizzle waters the land, warmth boosts plant growth and humans get depressed ... the solution, a mere 30 minute drive, over the hill to Alston, highest town in England, centre of Britain, some say, and Sunny ... hooray!

Yesterday was for Philosophers. First, a FB post on Sophistry, the Dark Art branch of the Love of Wisdom, or, in this case, knowledge, a very different thing. Mouths for hire they called the Sophists in Ancient Greece, as they spun their yarns rhetorically, slipping fallacies into plausible and malign tales ... sound familiar?

Next, the routine morning walk, and Malcolm, a local friend and handshaker. .. not masonic nor long-term local, but a retired rigger. .. an occupation which you don't survive with Fear, since the work demands nerves of steel and full awareness ... he is walking his dog, with visiting grandchildren, aged 8 and 9. The elder is the philosopher, full of questions and insights to share with an adult prepared to listen to the voice of a child not yet beaten to submission by the system. And fascinated by the Quantum World, the world he inherits ...

After morning writing and mundane work, an after lunch excursion West and Sunny stroll along the railway footpath to the Cumberland-Northumberland border, on the roof of England ... an alarming loss of front teeth thanks to ill advised chocolate bar, a bargain and delicious! Still, equanimity prevailed, plate safely stashed for resticking when dentists resume work, and on to encounter with a young philosopher, aged 18, and her vicar father, who doubles up as associate professor of Theology ... nice work if you can get it ... and learn the convoluted messages of organised religions, notably Abrahamic ones ... Lucy was very keen to explore Consciousness, the Observer Effect in Quantum Physics and all the implications of that ... young minds are into that ... it's time after a century of the pioneers, Max Planck, Schrodinger and his cat, David Bohm, of course, still relevant today, though resisted by the old guard ...

A return to dismal Durham County, enlivened, for some mask work in the Co-op, an unexpected handshake from an emboldened young rebel and home for supper and a later night of restful sleep and meaningful dreaming ...

Skies clearing ...

A few grey, damp days in August not unusual hereabouts ... it freshens up the greenery and certainly doesn't stop the daily walks ... great timing for budding blackberry crop, elderberry too, ready for winter vitC boosting, protecting against the indoor loving germs arriving every year. ..

Heat wave came and went yesterday they say ... just the one day, but quite warm enough at 15-20, who needs 30+? The grass is surely not greener on the other side if it's parched from drought!

So, the glass is half-full as prescribed, handy as helpful governments play games with holiday abroad plans ... keep us hopeful, as long as we comply. .. with ludicrous instructions to stay in Fear ostensibly of some virus, not especially dangerous compared to others our bodies have adapted to, though just as likely to finish us off as normal winter flu, novavirus, common colds, falling downstairs, heart failure, cancer ... the list goes on ... mortality the enemy these days it seems!

To be honest, dear reader(s), this time has been a Great Teacher for Wear & Dao the blog ... after all it started some six years or so ago, though sharing introspection across one lifetime of the author and his many parts, as each step along a unique path led to fascinating views including equanimity, much prized ... and that chapter on no-self found in Guadiaro, a gentle liberation, still held lightly ... and rudely interrupted by a call to action as a great injustice arose in the relative space and time in which the entity was playing.

Your Spring Camino is cancelled, they said. Who has the Power to do that? WHO'S the clue!
OK, this Retreat is congenial enough, good neighbours, growing library, Sun arriving sooner and great walks all around.

Stay indoors was the instruction in an astonishing grab for Power by a gang of scoundrels, led by a narcissist, principle-free, quoting Ancient Greeks without living Life in any way guided by the Ethics of those Philosophers, an admirer more of Churchill, the wartime leader, deeply flawed, swiftly voted out when war was over, never trusted by working folks, his order from his time as Home Secretary during a strike of miners in South Wales to the police: Drive the rats back down their holes, echoing through the ages as warning to us all ... Johnson often quoted in similar fascistic vein against other races, classes, minority groups, take your pick ... brushed off as buffoonery but this man is not that stupid but sinister ... a powerful team with his unelected special adviser pulling strings ... a puppet master with Rasputin ways, feared by many ... and in the end seen for what he is and removed as old systems crumble ... like Ceaucescu on the balcony as that tyranny was laughed off the stage ...

Humour then one tool to tackle Fear ... clear thinking too, but that is blocked by Fear responses and all the flaws of humans, befuddled by excess love of money, status, ambition and cultivated opinions ... smart folks often the most at risk of defending self-serving positions from weakness ... not to espouse a wholly negative view of Human Nature - on the contrary ... evidence laid out in Rutger Bregman's brilliant recent book "Human Kind" inspires and educates. .. a best-seller in the shops and in Hive, your alternative to tax dodging, worker exploiting Amazon growing fatter as an essential service in the past few months ...

This too shall pass, of course and scales are falling from eyes, corrupted media ditching more ridiculous orders to salvage some credibility with a less extreme reset of whole systems worldwide, since whole systems change is called for urgently ... though How is still our choice, as WHO and other corrupted organisations belatedly admit a not unusual mortality rate, still dubious, though by no means justifying the Martial Law responses and the consequential suffering.

Which possible Future do you choose Dear Reader(s)?

I choose a Simple Life thank you ... which, come to think of it, is what I have created anyhow, the recent disturbance notwithstanding. .. Compassion, Simplicity, Patience ...the treasures of the Dao.

Time for breakfast and a walk ...

August

Proper holidays for germs in Northern Hemisphere as as Sun hangs longer in the sky and humans give their skin a treat. .. maybe a toasting, which is overdoing it after a pale winter, but that's the pattern in the wealthy North ... lazy Southern Europeans and Americans leap into action, to earn enough to relax when the slaves go home ... mostly.

This blogger returned on Tuesday, having passed a pleasant fortnight in old pastures ... great tests of equanimity, taking hotel stays with faded four star grandeur, then opulent opportunity to subvert masked waiters, sandwiched by camping as all the same ... and lots of walking in new and old landscapes keeping the old carcase toned and tanned, fighting fit, immune system ready for second spikes, much mooted to keep folks frightened.

Bastards.

Meanwhile, newspapers make hay while they may, a brief respite from their decline as news goes digital. .. full page colour ads not cheap ... paid for by us so the junta may lie to the right, left and centre ... sub-regional titles their favourite, the most read ... the devious Grauniad directly funded by Gates, playing a very dark role in a plot by the super-rich to thin the herd, not as strategy to deal with flu and other bugs, but radical depopulation of the earth ... necessary perhaps, but possible in three generations or less with poverty reduction programmes, a compassionate response ... compassion however sadly absent at this level of obscene excess.

Masks in shops a damp squib here in Stanhope ... so far at least ... optional it seems. Still provoking alarm in FB land, with otherwise smart people holding fear and pointing virtual fingers.
Some way to go in this strange drama, with draconian stage waning in UK, making way for gentler version of New Normal ... though pre-coup normal was crazy enough, with all the wars and inequalities ...

Broader perspective not easy to maintain, given the international scale ... though zooming out to universe(s) and gently back to village, observing imperial power struggles along the way, trumps the venal limitations of the self-proclaimed masters of the earth and space, if you musk ... and in the end, Love wins ... that's clear ... beyond Fear, the tool employed so brilliantly in the mass hallucination conjured up from a flu-like virus, naturally occurring or manufactured by declining decadent BSA and allies or rising vibrant Eastern power ...

Resistance grows on holiday and at home, handshakes become a symbol for sceptics to know each other ... hugs too, if that's your thing.

Hints of human weak spot dropped by honest security seekers ... notably a young Albanian cafe owner, fully embedded in DUK, married to a woman of Anglo-German parentage, two children fully British and content to give up freedom for a life more limited but tolerable ... and, surprising to this writer, not seeking justification for previous espousal of Enver Hoxha and crew, says elders back home see the good old days nostalgically ...

Stanhope safe enough for me, no shooting or fines though Fear still lingers ... humour and common-sense the tools, plus patience as the game plays out ...